The Dirty River Boys All-Time Top Five Texas Music Venues

Texas Music is a term so broad it barely means anything outside of basic geographical terms. And Texas Country is almost as uselessly generic, given the wide swath of acts and sounds that fit under the million-gallon hat that is required to fit over the genre.

To paraphrase former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart (R.I.P.): It may be hard to define Texas Country, but when one hears it, they know it. Such is the case for El Paso's The Dirty River Boys. The primarily acoustic sounds that rustically and realistically jump from the young trio's pair of EPs (Long Cold Fall and Train Station), and they possess a wonderful lack of concern for the over-glossed butt-rock sounds that too often are deemed country and emanate from many of this state's dancehalls these days.

Well, speaking of Lone Star dancehall's, we thought we'd take a minute to catch up with the Dirty River Boys before their November 26th show with Oklahoma's Turnpike Troubadours at the Southside Music Hal to talk their favorite Texas-based venues.

THE DIRTY RIVER BOYS ALL TIME TOP FIVE TEXAS-BASED VENUESThe Blue Light (Lubbock): The Blue Light is a great room with a loyal, built-in crowd. It's a great place because they host rock-n-roll acts, indie acts, country acts and everything in between. Being a band that crosses genres so much, rooms like The Blue Light are ideal for us. This is also the first place we sold out, so we're biased!

Gruene Hall (New Braunfels): The history and location does it for us at Gruene Hall. We've had the pleasure of opening up for some great people there and we have had our own afternoon shows as well. It's just a great place with great history. The Parish (Austin): Everything about The Parish is just about perfect. From the lighting and production, to the folks running the sound board at the front of the house, and even the classic theater feeling: it's got the right vibe and the right people running it. The Iron Horse Pub (Wichita Falls): The Iron Horse is another great listening room where we have an amazing crowd. There is no dance floor, just seats directly in front of the stage which creates such a feeling of intimacy between the music and the crowd. We love places where people seem to be listening to what we're singing and The Iron Horse is definitely one of them.

Granada Theater (Dallas): Another place we have opened for some great acts is The Granada. Similar to The Parish, there is such a sense of professionalism in every aspect of the venue there that we feel right at home. There are also a lot of great indie, rock and country acts that go through there so it's not just catering to one genre.

The Dirty River Boys perform with the Turnpike Troubadours on Saturday, November 26th at the Southside Music Hal in Dallas.